1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to document sorting systems, and more specifically relates to a system and method of sorting checks based on image quality.
2. Related Art
Various applications require the automated processing of documents based on printed information. One common application involves the high-speed processing of checks by, e.g., a bank or other financial institution. In one such application, checks are sorted based on a set of special characters at the bottom of the check, which are called Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) characters. These characters are generally printed in a font referred to as E13B, and contain information regarding account number, routing numbers, etc. To implement such a system, the characters are printed in magnetic ink so that the characters can be read magnetically. An exemplary system is the IBM® 3890 check-sorting system, which directs checks to a desired destination or pocket based on the printed characters.
Depending on the particular application and needs of the financial institution, digital images of selective checks may also be captured as part of the check processing operation. The collected images may be used, for example, to provide electronic records for particular clients. In these cases, the check-sorting device analyzes the MICR characters to determine whether the check should be imaged. Check imaging is an independent process, and therefore does not impact the sorted destination of the check.
As part of imaging process, the quality of the image may be analyzed to determine if the quality is acceptable. Such a system is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,065, Apparatus and Method for Determining Image Quality, issued to Prakash et al., on Nov. 25, 1997, and is hereby incorporated by reference. If the image quality for a selected check is identified as unacceptable, it is flagged as suspect. If flagged, the check must then be manually retrieved by an operator who must either resubmit the check to the image/sorting process or submit it an image repair process. Unfortunately, the process of manually locating and removing flagged checks from a sorted destination can be a time consuming, costly, and error prone task.
Moreover, with the growth of imaging technologies, it is believed that electronic images will play a greater role in legally representing transactions. For instance, an original paper check is currently required to legally represent a transaction. However, it is likely that in the near future, an electronic image of a check will provide a legal basis for representing the transaction. Accordingly, imaging systems will be required to handle a larger volume of imaging tasks. Therefore, efficient systems for handling unacceptable images in document sorting devices will become necessary to avoid the overhead currently stemming from manual operations.